I think with a heat exchanger and hot filter system, you could under the car route the gas to a smaller front bumper cooler. Would give the added benefit of gas cooling even sitting at idle, with a radiator fan pulling air.
Could be done pretty simple to remove with exhaust v band clamps on either end.
Could maybe disguise the front cooler with a bull bar or other brush guard and mount accessory lights.
With a Stig-Erik Werner style cooler it wouldn’t need too large of a footprint.
JO, I hope we don’t steal the topic from Goran.
If you are going to add the lower nozzles, let me warn you, they must be of small cross-section, and the restriction opening must be enlarged so that the small coal collapses smoothly onto the grate, so that you always have enough coal below for the conversion (on the tractor, I have a restriction tube diameter of 18 cm) . The ratio between the total cross-section of the lower nozzles and the total cross-section of the upper ones should be approximately 1:10.
In the last sketch I drew a heat exchanger to preheat the fresh air and cool the hot gases so that it surrounds the grid area, of course the best heat exchange effect is here, but it is quite difficult to make, well, a simpler solution would be a double wall of the lower outer envelope, and fins can also be added inside.
The outdoor temp is dropping below -15C right now. Excellent chimney draft.
I was just debating wether I should bring a couple bags of chunks out to the truck right now or do it right before tomorrows departure at 5am. After looking at the thermometer I know the answer
This is a big one, for trucks up to 10 liters volume, i once bought two of these gasifiers at an auction, one was “crushed”, maybe a traffic accident? The hearth i show here comes from that gasifier.
The other gasifier had a totally burnt out heart and grate, i used the housing for my charcoal retort.
This as a gasifier stands 6’ 10" , a big gasifier.
My thoughts of improving this hearth is: better air pre-heating, a short wide condensing hopper, a separate choke that raises the restriction some, double gas outtakes, a bottom nozzle reaching the restriction.
Goran, l think you are the only one here that can just casualy go to a junk pile and pick out a random original ww2 gasifier hearth
Btw, those petrol blowtorches you got are real nice. If you ever get the chance, cpuld you take a few more pictures? I need something like this and buying a original here is never gona happen so l think l need to make my own
Well, i AM a scrap collector, (hoarder)
Funny thing with this ww2 gasifiers is they where expensive, almost a third the price of a car… when there was gasoline available again, many was to cheap to throw them away, or wanted to be safe if there was another fuel crisis, on the countryside they pop up sometimes, being stored in barns and sheds for long time.
As for blowtorches i could maybe send you one? I don’t know how hard the shipping would be? Otherwise i have parts, and brand new burners (would fit in a padded envelope)
How big do you need? For brazing, heating, weed control, or melting stuff? If i know i can post here pic’s and some drawings i got.
Also if you want petrol, kerosene or ethanol type?
I don’t use it a lot but do use it if I’m out of propane for my torch or if I don’t want to waste the propane to heat up something or to burn off paint or grease from something.
At the top it has a needle valve that controls the amount of fuel it sprays out.
There is a little bowl that is below the valve that I figure was to drip some gasoline into by opening one of the screws above it. That preheats the valve/nozzle assembly to help vaporize the fuel. If I have propane for my torch I usually cheat and heat it and light it with that but I have used the gasoline instead when I need to.
The hook on top and the notch on the top of the nozzle is for heating an old style soldering iron as well as for hanging it up. I haven’t used that feature but I’ve been meaning to try it. I’m sure it would work.
I hesitated using this one for a long time because it sounded dangerous (and probably is) but it works. I don’t know that I’d want to use it inside for soldering pipes under a sink or in a wall near flammable stuff but wouldn’t hesitate to use it where the risk of fire wasn’t a problem. My fuel probably wasn’t the cleanest or freshest in the picture above and it might not have been preheated enough but I have seen it burn a lot cleaner with an almost invisible (in the sunlight) flame.
I’ve seen new ones for sale online but they probably aren’t made as good as the old ones.
Goran, this unit looks good, probably the diameter between the nozzles is more than 30 cm, maybe 35 cm, this is the ideal diameter for the upper nozzles, otherwise you wrote everything essentially, the reworking of the legendary Imbert system means that the development is moving forward and they are doing it only the best.
That is a nice one Brian, i agree they are good when out of propane, there are often easier to get some gasoline.
Sweden has been a big manufacturer and exporter of blowtorches, so i got mostly Primus, Optimus, Radius and Siewert brand, but i had the luck to get some American stuff also.
Turner gasoline blowtorch.
You also give a good explanation of the function ,the wick has one more important
reason to be there: i stops flame from getting back in the tank, if pressure/fuel is running out.
Edit: there are only a wick in gasoline/ethanol torches, kerosene is seen as “slow” burning, not so easy to vapourize.
Im going to take some measures on this hearth, maybe tomorrow, it was to freakin cold outside when i took the pic’s (-10°c) and i was outside in only longjohns and a tshirt
Wow, apears these things are quite a bit more complicated thain l thod. Wuldnt justify making one… never saw one in real life.
Goran, thats wery kind of you. Apreciate it. But l do have a hard time accepting favours… as for posting, JO and l did exchange some parcels a while back, and lf l remember right all went smooth. Btw, he sent me a wery nice birthsday present. A liter of tar from the gasifier lm only using it on special occasions, like painting letters in the char shop.
Ha, no melting stuff l got my oxi acetilene, or charcoal for that. Its just l got fed up buying insanely expensive propane cartridges, and they usualy run out in the worst kind of times, or freeze in winter. Tone is a smart guy, he brazed a fitting on the bottom of his blowtorch cartridge and he can reload it from a large propane tank, but this doesent fit me much since l got no other use for a large propane tank and buying it just to refill a blowtorch makes no sence.
How do ethanol burners compare to petrol ones, power wise?
Sorry I forget about your birthday this year, Kristijan
As I remember it, weight adds to the shipping cost considerably - or you could have had a 5 or 10L can of tar It would probably be more economical if I send you bills in an envelope, you get storebought tar and then add your own soot for the “proper” color. But not as fun
So did l
Nah, not the same. This is a gift l will remember for life, and it has a humouros side to it besides, l dont think tar can be bought anywhere here. Bitumen yes, but pine tar etc no way.
I have heared birch tar deters biting insects on animals thugh, will try that next year with your tar. Chances are we will be expanding our flock to some bigger animals.
Hopper juice would work and easier to apply. Maybe you want some?
@JohanM is very fond of cheese. He’s already got the logistics, so I’ve been trying to convince him to start keeping milk cows. We all drink milk like calfs up here. He could make all sorts of dairy products. He claims it’s way too much work. I think he’s just a bit lazy
Do your bigger animal plans involve cows?
Hi Kristijan, ethanol blowtorches are about 40% less efficient than petrol ones= bigger.
Petrol ones are the most useful around here, kerosene are much more expensive nowadays.
On the other way kerosene blow-torches are’nt so picky about fuel, petrol with some diesel or lamp-oil works, but that mix tends to make a mess if not used often.
Thinking about that, when we were at Waynes place, he sayd he hasnt got moskitos because of the swallows. But what if the real truth is all the hopper juice he hes been pouring around ? hmm…
Not to trash Gorans topic too much, but yes l was thinking about that. We established a “comunity” of 3 families living just a few km apart and all together we got enaugh land for quite a few cows or horses. Untill now, l was “as laizy” as Johan ( ) when it came to dairy, its a big obligation. Milking twice a day, then processing all the cow juice… and for months without skipping a day. But now with 3 families we can rotate a cow(s) from homestead to homestead every couple of weeks, so you only get 1/3 the obligation. Well, will see. Also a horse wuld be real handy. Im a strong beliver that for a small homestead a horse as a work animal still can be superior to a tractor in many occasions.
Goran, wow, 40%! Didnt think its that much! But whats the difference in all those different fuel torches realy? l mean they probably have different nozzles, venturis etc but in principle they work the same?
hmm…